We are not alone

In several other countries, the same measures to limit or stop home education are being made. The example of Germany's legislation under Hitler in 1938, totally forbidding it, is being made elsewhere, too.

Here, we publish news of what is happening across the globe. Some articles contain call to action, just like the one we call for in Sweden. It is our hope that publishing this information will put the spotlight on very dangerous trends, so that legislators may "wake up" to what they are doing.

Great Britain

Please help us keep our freedom to home educate as we, and our children, see fit.

Please support us in petitioning the Prime Minister of Great Britain to reject the recommendations of the Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman.This report is a totally disproportionate response to a 'perceived' problem full of unsubstantiated allegations that home educated children are more at risk of abuse than those at school. This simply is not true, as the report itself makes clear. Enacting the recommendations in this report would establish the state as “parent of first resort”, even though current legislation makes parents responsible for providing a suitable education for their children.

The report proposes to introduce monitoring and registration of home educators. Local officials would be given automatic access to private homes to interview children without their parents or any other trusted adult present. This is outrageous and a serious challenge to civil liberties. Registration may be refused or revoked on safeguarding grounds, though so far it is unclear what these grounds may be and Badman in his report stated that such grounds could be “any other concerns” that the local official had. Under such conditions, “registration” could really mean “permission” especially when home educators come up against inspectors who are anti-home education.

The proposals also introduce the need for the parent to submit an approved 12 month plan and for their child to “exhibit” at the end of the year that their plan has been successfully implemented. This will put an end to autonomous education/unschooling, as any such child-led philosophy would be decimated by having to implement such a structured scheme. This would also seriously curtail the flexibility that many structured home educators enjoy.

Across many countries there seems to be an attempt to undermine home education and to make sure that all children receive the state’s approved version of education, Sweden is moving to ban home education and it is already against the law in Germany.

Please help us stop this happening in England. This is becoming a global problem for home educators/homeschoolers. Let us unite and say with one big voice, “enough is enough!"

This report is a totally disproportionate response to a 'perceived' problem full of unsubstantiated allegations that home educated children are more at risk than those at school. This is simply not true and enacting the recommendations in this report would establish the state as parent of first resort. To allow LA staff access to private homes to interview children without their parents when there is no reason to suspect abuse is outrageous.

Germany

Germany is a very special chapter on the subject of Home education. Laws that were made in Hitler's Germany ("Reichsschulpflichtgesetz", 1938) are still in force in most regions, but mainly in Bavaria.

Home education is de facto banned in Germany, according to these old laws. Many families that have wanted to home educate, have been forced to flee the country, and several of them have even received political asylum, including in Canada and the USA. In the worst cases, the "Child Services" (Jugendamt) - which in many ways have greater powers than the police - forced seized children, seized families moneys and escrow accounts, etc. Only on account of the family chosing to home educate. Many associations are formed in Germany, to try to make known to the world in any way, what is actually happening in their country, and try to get the UN and EU Court of Human Rights to influence Germany to change their laws so they conform to human rights conventions.

It all becomes even more strange when one notes that a German family with children in a German school abroad, is subsidised by the German government for the costs of distance education instead of putting the children in school!

Quote (translated) about the government funded distance school ILS:

The ILS has been mandated by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide distance learning to German pupils all over the world, so that they can obtain German school-leaving qualifications. This offer is geared towards German parents who, for private or professional reasons, are planning a long stay abroad and face the dilemma of how to deal with their child’s educational needs, where there is no German school nearby or such a school proves to be unsuitable for their child. The ILS’s solution - take your child’s school with you. German families overseas making use of the ILS’s services also receive financial sponsorship from the German government.

We do not focus on the problems in Germany, but their situation is so severe, that we want to at least mention it. There is also a document submitted to the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights at the UN, Professor Verner Munoz Vila Lobos, in February 2006, describes the situation. His document calls to correction, from the highest level.